Last night was really cold!  We woke to frosts and the outside temp at 0 degrees.  Our van bottomed out at a balmy 4.7 degrees before the diesel heater went on.  We were on the road by 9 for our 14^th day on tour.  

Along this part of the drive there were lots of really interesting trees lining the road. They are called gimlet trees and are a type of eucalyptus that only grow in the wheatbelt and goldfield regions of WA. They have an orangey, smooth and a bit shiny surface that is quite striking.

Our first stop was at Buldania Rocks only a few km up the road.  An interesting rock formation with lots of circular holes filled with water.

Then it was through to Norseman.  This small town seems to be declining in population.  Many of the shops were boarded up, but the people were friendly.  Here we played 2 holes of the Nullarbor links golf round.  The Scott’s had to sit this one out after a rather unfortunate coffee spill through the van that required attention….

The first hole saw Jase and Sue tie for honours at 8 on the par 5 and the second par 4 hole Jase took out with 5.  Not sure why my turn to be the leader hasn’t happened yet…..

After lunch we continued on towards Kalgoorlie.  We drove straight to the Super Pit – a very large open cut gold mine in town on the ‘Golden Mile’.  While there an absolutely massive explosion was detonated which certainly had us all ducking for cover.  The scale of the machinery used is mind boggling.  The photo above shows all of us standing in a bucket used to load the trucks but the trucks looked like little tonka toys from the top of the mine!

We have stopped for the night in the heart of Kalgoorlie.  We all headed out and did our first decent fresh food shop in 2 weeks after going through border quarantine twice since leaving home.  We move on again in the morning.